Attempts to establish pay-for-plasma clinics in Canada have recently brought new urgency to concerns about the potential commercialization of the Canadian blood supply. Across Canada, legislation about the sale of tissues varies widely. While Quebec, Ontario and Alberta restrict the sale of plasma, most other jurisdictions have legislation that exempts blood and blood products—as well as reproductive tissues—from provisions on sale. With the recent establishment of for-profit plasma banks in Saskatoon and Moncton, as well as calls to rescind federal prohibitions on the sale of sperm and eggs--new concerns about the expanding market in human tissues have emerged.

In some provinces and territories, no legislation exists to prevent payment for blood or blood products, and specific exemptions in human tissue legislation specifically exclude blood and other tissues from prohibitions on payment. The nature of these exemptions varies between jurisdictions, with some defining “tissue” that is prohibited from payment in ways that exclude “skin, bone, blood constituent or other tissue that is replaceable by natural processes of repair”  and others including variations that address spermatozoa, ova, embryos, fetuses, and/or placenta but not necessarily bone or skin.  

Existing scholarship on payment for blood donation has focused either on the ethical implications of payment for what has historically been an altruistically provided resource, or alternatively, concerns about safety tied to the findings of the Krever Commission. Scholarship on the commercialization of renewable and reproductive tissues has, however, failed to address variation in provincial tissue exemptions, and in the absence of this knowledge, misperceptions among the public about what tissues and body parts can legally be bought and sold easily occur.

This project investigates the origins of tissue exemptions in Canada, identifying the discussions and arguments that led to their passage in provincial and territorial legislatures. Through a study of relevant legislation, legislative debates, minutes of relevant Uniform Law Conferences, media reports, and existing scholarship, it provides a comparative, analysis of the impetus for the varied tissues exemptions. In doing so, it reveals the historic intent of these exemptions and their contemporary status.